Capturing and Captivating a Mostly Distance Learning Audience: Substance and Style – Part III of IV

Part III continues outlining and illustrating Substance and Style and Tools and Techniques for Capturing and Captivating a Mostly Distance Learning Audience. Part II examined Key Structures and Strategies. The series was spurred by highly successful “spin-off” response to two recent “hybrid presentations” with a small in-room and considerably larger webinar/teleconference audience. And despite reflecting on Marshall McLuhan’s concepts of “hot and cold media,” the author of Preserving Human Touch in a Hi-Tech World, not surprisingly, takes a relatively Lo-Tech but imaginative, strategic empathy approach to audience connection.

 Three key components of substance are identified:

1. essence or essential nature; a fundamental or characteristic part or quality

2. ultimate reality underlying all outward manifestations and change

3. practical importance, that is, meaning, usefulness, and significance

 And with McLuhan’s “hot and cold media theory” in mind, some practical and valuable tips and techniques for engaging a hybrid audience with purpose, passion, and play:

1. Start Where the Client or Customer Is

2. Select and Work with a Few Key Concepts

3. Differentiate and Interrelate Key Items

4. â€œIt’s a Glitch” and the Unforeseen Happens

5. Bring a Surprising Mix of Words, Images, and Vocals

6. Be Larger than Life (but not too large)

7. Generate Questions and Conflict while Modeling Concentrated-Creative-Comedic Expression

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Capturing and Captivating a Mostly Distance Learning Audience: Structures and Strategies, Substance and Style, Tools and Techniques – Part III of IV

B. Mostly Distance Learning Audience: Substance and Style

Wanting to begin Part III with an overview of the personality- and performance-related terms “substance” and “style,” I decided to turn to Merriam-Webster/online version. â€œSubstance” has three broad elements: 1) essence, 2) reality, and 3) practical importance. Let’s flesh these out semantically and then conceptually bring them to life in the context of a “hybrid” – small in-room/considerably larger distance learning – audience. I shall make the case that bringing all three components is vital for generating compelling (information/insight-driven, i.e., head-focused) and captivating (imagination/innovation-driven, i.e., heart-flowing) hybrid presentations.

 Three Basic Definitions of Substance:

1. essence or essential nature; a fundamental or characteristic part or quality

2. ultimate reality underlying all outward manifestations and change

3. practical importance, that is, meaning, usefulness, and significance

 And some illuminating synonyms: concreteness, tangibility, shape, and structure.

Definitions of Substance: Three Keys to Capturing and Captivating a Mostly Distance Learning Audience

1. Essential Nature or Fundamental Quality: Bifurcated Audience and Brief Time-Limits. Two fundamental aspects of a mostly distance-learning program are: a) the presenter and small numbers of attendees are in a conference room while often a much larger percentage of your audience remains unseen, and b) the presentation or program is usually time-limited (30-90 minutes.) Actually, I don’t like going over sixty minutes. This makes sense when you are primarily a talking head; when interactive exercises are constrained by the nature of the learning-sharing platform. In my estimation, you’ll definitely need a tangible break during a two-hour program. Not just for the “call of nature,” but also for sustaining attention span. A two-hour program is definitely testing concentration capacity. Remember, most folks in the electronic ether are listening alone. In general, this will provide a complex challenge: providing an audience with practical and relevant problem-solving ideas and tools while communicating in an extra-ordinary manner. 

 Learning Summary. A mostly distance-learning program needs to be effective and efficient. A presenter must deliver and display concrete, concise, and clear information in an energizing, entertaining, and engaging manner. And the fundamental challenge is generating this head- and heart-connection quickly… and sustaining it for a time period that is not insubstantial for those on the electronic ether. When used purposefully and artfully, the typically circumscribed time frame becomes an animating and focus-sharpening dynamic for both speaker and audience.

 Illustrative Point. In a typical hybrid presentation, you have two hours max (often less) to get your message across. This makes sense when you are primarily a talking head; when interactive exercises are constrained by the nature of the learning-sharing platform. In my estimation, you’ll definitely need a tangible break during a two-hour program. Not just for the “call of nature,” but also for sustaining attention span. A two-hour program is definitely testing concentration capacity. Remember, most folks in the electronic ether are listening alone. In general, this will provide a complex challenge: providing an audience with practical and relevant problem-solving ideas and tools while communicating in an extra-ordinary manner. 

2. Underlying Ultimate Reality: Quantitatively and Qualitative Differences in Audience Experience. In a mostly distance-learning program, especially when a large percentage of your audience is unseen, the goal is to make a purposeful and passionate connection with both the in-room folks and those in the electronic ether. To do this, you’ll want to have some understanding of the groundbreaking work of mid-20th c. media theory pioneer, Marshall McLuhan. McLuhan’s revolutionary insight was that any medium “amplifies or accelerates existing (human or group) processes,” introduces a “change of scale or pace or shape or pattern into human association, affairs, and action,” resulting in “psychic and social consequences.” This is the real “meaning or message” brought by the medium, regardless of the “content” emitted by it. His famous mantra: The medium is the message. For example, the light bulb, despite emitting no content, is a powerful medium; it vastly expanded the range of nighttime human activities. Or, a talking head lecture, relentlessly monotone, factual, or logical, devoid of emotion, let alone passion, can easily induce audience passivity or tune out.

Illustrative Point. As an example, I recall being on a four-person phone conference – a senior member of an HR Consulting firm, two consultants with the firm, and an HR Director. I was the soft-skills/stress expert. The hi-tech consultant was explaining in detail the intricacies of the new software package he hoped the client (a major university) would eventually purchase and install. And Mr. Hi-Tech went on and on, never pausing to check in with the client, to ask if she had any questions, ideas, concerns, etc. To be fair, he wasn’t just a drone, but even with some energy, on a phone line, enough is enough. Alas, one challenge for a phone conference presenter, alone in a room, there is no opportunity to receive visual cues. Such cues may provide a warning signal of fading audience engagement.

After about five minutes (which is definitely a long time for participants to be listening to an uninterrupted monologue, especially of a technical nature), I finally cut in. While myself getting antsy, I was particularly anxious for the Director. I now asked the potential client if she had any questions. It took her awhile to respond. Frankly, the client already seemed to have detached. (We didn’t get the contract.) And, not surprisingly, the other consultant later expressed anger toward me for “showing him up.” This consultant was surely lacking in “Emotional Intelligence”; he was clearly clueless about the communication requisites for such a media platform, when all are on separate lines. (Okay, maybe I’m being too critical; perhaps he just needs to brush up on Dr. McLuhan.)

 Hot and Cold Media

 McLuhan famously distinguished between “hot and cold media: Hot media mostly engages one sense completely. It demands little interaction because it ‘spoon feeds’ the content; without active participation, there’s little opportunity to personally engage with, shape, and/or influence the message. As, noted above it can induce passivity and disconnection.

In contrast, cool or low definition media generally engages several senses less completely in that it demands a great deal of interaction on the part of the audience. Audiences then participate more because, by their own efforts, they are required to perceive, speculate, (or inquire about) the gaps in the content (Quora.com).

3. Practical Implications of McLuhan for Mostly-Distance Learning: Macro & Micro

I immediately see two significant implications – macroscopic or (social/learning processes impact) and microscopic (communication/engagement skills impact) – for our learning/sharing challenge:

a. Macroscopic. Clearly, this new distance learning medium is impacting human association. For example, in the Federal government, less people are attending meetings in person; more are dialing or clicking in. (Of course, this enables meetings to have a national, if not international reach.) In fact, one association, to insure local face-to-face participation in monthly chapter meetings, no longer has a distance-audience option. At the same time, the glass may be half full: With a hybrid audience, smaller numbers in the room allow for more intimate connection, both with the presenter and with other in-room attendees. In addition, this small sample may well have some representational value for assessing or understanding concerns or issues of the larger, often unseen distance audience. The roomers may become “the canary in the coal mine.” (Though it’s important to recognize, for example, that headquarter needs, concerns, and cultural norms often are at odds with operational issues and methods in the field. Typically, a webinar or teleconference originates from HQ.)

b. Microscopic. With a distance learning audience and a fairly short amount of program time, a presenter must not fall into the trap of simply “spoon feeding” the audience. Yet, with limited group exercise options, the presentation invariably takes on a more information sharing and idea generating quality. A closing Q & A segment typically becomes the major vehicle for interaction. Some quick tips for making this mostly Cognitive-Conceptual Approach more effective and engaging:

 1. Start Where the Client or Customer Is: Case Illustration Engaging with the More Immediate, Deeper Reality Over Outward Expectations. Months before the Jan 2019 Federal Government shutdown, I had been scheduled for a hybrid-distance learning “lunch and learn” with employees of the US Dept. of Health and Human Services. And, naturally, the program fell right in the middle of the contentious partial closure. The scheduled topic was “Cross-Cultural Diversity.” It was pretty obvious there was an educational content/program context disconnect. Having had previous experience with major federal government reorganizing and downsizing (it’s less often “rightsizing,” more like frightsizing), clearly, the state of stress and frustration needed to be addressed. Through empathetically framed questions and personal sharing/stories, I began to emotionally connect with all attendees. I was establishing my “street cred.” Practical and potent tools for grappling with individual uncertainty had to initially leapfrog my talk on cultural diversity! A combination of brief spontaneous stories and Power Point Slides were outlined. Folks left with some immediate, “hands on” diagnostic, prevention, and intervention concepts and tips for managing stress, preventing burnout, and developing “psychological hardiness” in these “t ‘n t” – turbulent and trying – times.

 I even managed to divide or structure the presentation into two twenty-minute streamlined components – “Stress Resilience” followed by “Cross-Cultural Diversity.” In fact, during the closing Q & A, I recall one teleconference participant sharing (through the phone line) that a key takeaway was “key cross-cultural diversity ideas and structures that could be applied” in her workplace setting.

 So, immediately the message was clear: this presentation was not going to be “lunch and learn” business as usual. We would be engaging the government gorilla in the room. Content would be shaped by “on the ground” circumstances. At the same time, improvisation could coexist with an established agenda, perhaps to synergistic effect. That is, the unexpected subject pairing had revealed the tangible conceptual and practical interplay between “Stress Resilience and Cross-Cultural Diversity.” When examined/presented in tandem, each concept seemed to expand and enlighten the value of the other. In the future, I will be more consciously planning such a hybrid presentation for hybrid audiences.

2. Select and Work with a Few Key Concepts. A distance-learning presenter must be conscious of a workable number of concepts in an often-limited time frame. The presenter must sort the conceptual wheat from the chaff by providing no more than a handful of practical and useful problem-solving information and ideas, illustrations, and insights. Flesh out a few concepts and tools in depth and vivid color, perhaps also posing provocative questions. Much better than attempting an unmanageable number of concepts and tools (or slides) in a quick or superficial manner. View each slide as potentially a rich tapestry of text and/or images that is fully brought to life by your words, examples, stories, and stimulating questions, eliciting brief discussion and distance/text or voice feedback among those in the room. So, don’t just deliver good information; learn to ask head- and heart-engaging and provoking questions that enable a participant to:

 a) in turn ask for further clarification or to express divergence of viewpoint or opinion,

b) contemplate and/or share his or her hard-earned experience and perspective; (remember, as a philosopher whose name escapes me once said, The most important human desire is the desire to feel important!), and

c) more personally relate to and connect – objectively and subjectively – with the content. To borrow from Martin Luther King’s immortal “I Have a Dream Speech,” help folks see how your content may well go beyond knowledge and impact their character!

3. Differentiate and Interrelate Key Items. Your handful of select ideas should be woven into a strategic problem-solving, distance-learning package. Consider this trees/forest analogy: first, clearly identifying and relate ideas, tools, and examples (the individual trees.) Then, second, synthesize the diversity into a conceptual and “hands on” mini-forest. (It’s okay to be a tree hugger. ?? ) A single tree stands alone. A forest is a potential breeding ground for mutually supportive interdependency amongst the trees, e.g., the intertwining, symbiotic root structure and the provision of optimal shade and light. A community of trees becomes a habitat generating and supporting all kinds of biodiversity; the forest releasing oxygen into the atmosphere, bestowing natural beauty, such as Fall’s kaleidoscopic coloration. And forests remind us that that the beauty of fall is transient… yet springs eternal. (Though more than a half century ago, Rachel Carson warned that “spring can be silenced.”) So, the forest is a refuge and secret haven, simultaneously a scary lair of life and death. It is Mother Nature’s yin/yang labyrinth for danger and opportunity. Yet, sadly, Miss Timberland, herself, is frequently at risk of being ravaged by human/corporate greed. (A Grimm’s fairy tale, anyone?)

 Trees, Forest, and Synergistic Mindscape

 Akin to the forest analogy, the hybrid learning setting is a dynamic blend of different – both near and far – social-communication environments, of individuals and the collective. Each environment has different vantage points; each presents unique challenges and opportunities. With both, a presenter attempts to plant and cultivate ideational and tactical seeds. Through information delivery as well as purposeful, provocative, and passionate expression, Johnny or Jeannie Appleseed may bring to life vibrant individual trees. An experienced and imaginative presenter may even envision a conceptual and practical, an analytic and emotional forest. Such diversity and synthesis yield a synergistic mindscape: hybrid learners are engaged, energized, and, maybe even, beginning to feel enlightened: the whole (the forest or hybrid educational ecology) is greater than the sum of its parts (the trees – individual learners relating to standalone concepts). However, the real dreamlike synergy is when, for a magical moment in time, despite distance in space, presenter and audience are not just parts but become experiential partners sharing that kindred, medium/mind-expanding wavelength.

 From Enchanting and Enlightening Forest to Effective and Efficient Ecological Engagement

 This ideation-intervention gestalt, with the right design and delivery, with proper pruning/editing, just may yield an “enchanting and enlightening forest” – a head- and heart-expanding vantage point with unexpected views and inspiring vision. Let me provide an illustration: stress, change and conflict as trees or applied concepts in the individual and organizational resilience forest. Clearly, these interacting, psycho-social variables – stress, change, and conflict – powerfully impact human and organizational performance. Also, each conceptual tree possesses its own problem-solving skills, structures, and strategies. And, the rich conceptual and practical interconnection among stress, change, and conflict must emerge for hybrid participants for there to be effective and efficient ecological engagement as well as creative collaboration.  Learners need to grasp and grapple with how stress, change, and conflict impact one another in the human, interpersonal, and organizational arenas: a) how change upsets rules, behavior and communication patterns, and generates feelings of loss, especially loss of control; b) how conflict and stress, if optimal or excessive, can heighten or disrupt focus and creative performance; and c) how each require grief space-time for productive problem-solving, etc. The interaction of this conceptual “tree-nity” becomes the foundational forest for sustaining individual and group resilience and resourcefulness in a variety of psycho-social, work-life contexts. Consider this full menu (or “forest”) of itemized program objectives (the trees). Depending on time allotted for the program, it may well be edited and trimmed.

 Stress, Change, and Conflict Resilience: Key Learning Objectives

 1. Natural SPEED (Sleep-Priorities-Passion-Empathy-Exercise-Diet) Quiz and rapidly identify stress smoke signals and “The Four Stages of Burnout”

 2. Discover burnout prevention/recovery concepts of "Psychological Hardiness” and "The Stress Doc’s Six ‘R’s of Burnout Recovery”

3. Exercise and tools for managing loss and harnessing change; why is it often difficult to “let go?”

 4. Learn to disarm critical aggressors and power struggles while building trust; set limits and boundaries on time and energy-wasting, confidence-draining people and situations

 5. Discover structures, tools, and techniques for developing more open and resilient, creative and collaborative teams

 6. Learn to quickly build a sense of trust and camaraderie while breaking down status and cultural diversity barriers through a risk-taking, humor, and story-sharing exercise.

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 4. â€œIt’s a Glitch” and the Unforeseen Happens. Of course, when it comes to technical learning platforms, glitch happens. In Part II, I shared how weird sounds from the mic system reminded me of The Twilight Zone TV series theme. I proceeded to have fun with this, by vocally replicating the theme, distracting folks and even engaging one or two.

 The unexpected can also occur when the program coordinator cuts into your allotted time; suddenly you have twenty minutes instead of the anticipated forty. Now, on the spot improvisation and streamlining become your ace card. Don’t panic; if you’ve done sufficient preparation, just trust your gut instinct regarding what’s most important to share. Believe me, people remember passion (your ability to inspire ideas and actions or how you make them feel) at least as much as polish (how poised or professional you come across). 

5. Bring a Surprising Mix of Words, Images, and Vocals. Over the years, I have performed in a variety of program and audience settings having diverse performance and outcome demands. One obvious conclusion: successful presentations are not just content and context-driven. As a presenter, the breadth and depth of personality, not just your expertise, is on stage! Ironically, this may be especially salient when most folks are listening through a computer screen or telephone line. Why do I say this? Simple: when folks can’t process both visual and verbal data (for example, besides Power Point Slides), then words and vocals become your one-person band. (Think of Dylan with both his range of “voice that came from you and me” to his “Lay Lady Lay” sound, along with guitar and harmonica.) You need vocals that can generate tempos and tones from the soft, slow, and subtle to the buoyant, bold, and brassy.

 Get Cool

 So, one way of cooling down the medium, that is, getting people more engaged, is by varying “what” is presented and “how” it is delivered or shared: for example, information and ideas as bullet points, graphs, charts, cartoons, stories, etc. In addition to the verbal (the presenter’s words) and text and pictorial (e.g., the presenter’s slides, typically), variation also occurs through the nonverbal components of speech. When people can’t see your body posture, arm movements, or facial expressions, then your voice itself must be a multifaceted tool of engagement. Especially with a distance-learning audience, employing tone, intonation, emphasis, energy, volume, pacing, rhythm, pitch, etc. … all are critical.

 Variety doesn’t just add spice to life, but often injects surprise… whether surprising yourself with a new learning curve or action (like when I figure out how to use a digital application, e.g., my smartphone calendar) or by breaking out of the behavior patterns others are expecting. You want people on the edge of their seats, excitedly thinking, what’s coming next? Remember, words, while they may wound or wear you out, are potentially magical tools for wonder, wit, and wisdom. As acclaimed author and humorist, Mark Twain, observed: Wit is the sudden marriage of ideas which before their union were not perceived to have any relation!

 6. Be Larger than Life (but not too large). As a distance presenter, I may have an advantage. Stress Doc presentation topics are naturally passionate components of my professional and personal life: stress, burnout, loss, grief, change, conflict, anger, passion, communication, resilience, cultural diversity, creativity, leadership, team building, etc. And as I’m discovering, awareness of both the small in-room numbers and the larger, mystery electronic audience, along with the shorter/higher pressure time frame, impacts my method, motivation, and mojo!

 One challenge is to be somewhat intimate with the folks in the room while also being slightly larger than life for those in the ether. (The test: being my fullest self without being full of myself.) And as I recently discovered, with a hybrid audience, when tapping into purpose and passion my stage/screen personae may not just be larger… but also louder and more animated. It can be a challenge finding the sweet spot range.

 Illustrative Point. Approaching the end of a mostly distance learning program, I was going for a strong close. Guess I didn’t quite realize the degree or intensity of my passion. My voice and pounding on the conference room table for emphasis certainly woke up at least one individual: a federal employee working in an adjacent room, not part of the program, walked in and asked me to tone it down. I’m sure she had good reason, yet in looking back, I did not detect an atmosphere of discomfort with my passion, even with the pounding. I sensed the in-room folks were energized, if not inspired, by this spontaneous and out-sized display of energy and enthusiasm. I may well have been touching some of their own deeper purpose and passion. P.S. The coordinators of the program have invited me back as a speaker

 7. Generate Questions and Conflict while Modeling Concentrated-Creative-Comedic Expression. Another critical communicational quality is the ability to ask mind-challenging, even upsetting yet breadth and depth expanding, questions. (As pragmatic American education pioneer and philosopher, John Dewey, noted: Conflict is the gadfly of thought. It stirs us to observation and memory. It shocks us out of sheep-like passivity. It instigates to invention, and sets us to noting and contriving. Conflict is the sine qua non of reflection and ingenuity.)

In addition to evocative and provocative questions, to capture and captivate, I would add the use of poetic-like language and imagery, aphorisms, alliterations, (e.g., the above paragraph opens with the repetitive sound of “critical communicational quality”) and acronyms. (You know what stress-induced TMJ really stands for: Too Many Jerks! Okay, some edgy yet appropriate humor. Hey, my goal in life… to be a wise man and a wise guy!) Might we call this is an imaginative and memorable manner of expression that may surprise, perhaps tickle, and even inspire? In other words, the “purposeful” needs to be examined and embellished through a “passionate, provocative, playful and, perhaps, a philosophical” expressive frame. â€œPassion Power” ? anyone?

The more that I highlight my manner and method of delivery, we are circling in on the second part of “Substance and Style.” For three basic components of “style” are: 1) a distinctive manner of expression (as in writing or speech), 2) a distinctive manner or custom of behaving or conducting oneself, and 3) a particular manner or technique by which something is done, created, or performed.

And Part Four will highlight the Stress Doc’s synthesis of “substance and style” as it relates to high-impact communication: the newly expanded “Five ‘P’s of Passion Power Model.”

Closing: Summary and Looking Ahead

 Part III has illustrated how the three keys of “substance” play out in capturing and captivating a mostly hybrid distance-learning scenario:

1. Essential Nature or Fundamental Quality: Bifurcated Audience and Brief Time-Limits

2. Underlying Ultimate Reality: Quantitatively and Qualitative Differences in Audience Experience

3. Practical Implications of McLuhan for Mostly-Distance Learning: Macro & Micro

 And building on the “macroscopic” and especially the “microscopic” implications of Marshall McLuhan’s media theory along with the Stress Doc’s considerable trial and error learning as a multimedia presenter, the essay has outlined seven key tips, tools, and techniques for animating a mostly Cognitive-Conceptual Approach:

 1. Start Where the Client or Customer Is

2. Select and Work with a Few Key Concepts

3. Differentiate and Interrelate Key Items

4. â€œIt’s a Glitch” and the Unforeseen Happens

5. Bring a Mix of Words, Images, and Vocals

6. Be Larger than Life (but not too large)

7. Generate Questions and Conflict while Modeling Concentrated-Creative Expression

 And these components are building a bridge between the Stress Doc’s understanding and application of “substance and style.”

 Lastly, Part IV will, in fact, further flesh out “style” skills and strategies, including The Stress Doc’s “Five ‘P’s of Passion Power” Model – being Purposeful-Provocative-Passionate-Playful-Philosophical. In addition, the model has recently been expanded with the Six “E”s: Educating, Energizing, Empathizing, Entertaining, Engaging & Enlightening Communication Tools and Techniques. Here’s a select preview of both model and tools:

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The New KISS: Keep It Short (or Simple) & Smart and

The Memorable MISS: Make It Sassy (or Subtle) & Surprising

Less Is More (More or Less)

Stand Out…Don’t Just Be Outstanding

Be Out-rage-ous…Not Just “Out of the Box”

Word Artistry Triple “A”: Acronyms, Aphorisms & Analogies

“R & R”…and “R”: Rhythm & Rhyme…And Reversal

So, hopefully, the fourth and final segment will fully and once and for all flesh out and bring to life my manner of expressing, conducting, and performing as a mostly distance-learning presenter. Amen and women, to that!

Mark Gorkin, MSW, LICSW, "The Stress Doc" ?, a nationally acclaimed speaker, popular webinar educator, writer, and "Motivational Psychohumorist" ?. Mark is a founding partner and Stress Resilience and Trauma Debriefing Consultant for the Nepali Diaspora Behavioral Health & Wellness Initiative and is a Cross-Cultural Diversity Training Speaker & Consultant for numerous Federal Agencies. The Doc is also a Leadership and Life Coach as well as a Clinical Therapist for Inner City Family Services, Washington, DC. A former Stress and Violence Prevention Consultant for the US Postal Service, he has led numerous Pre-Deployment Stress Resilience-Humor-Team Building Retreats for the US Army. Presently, Mark does Cross Cultural Facilitation and Presentations for organizational/corporate clients of HR Consulting Firm PRM. The Doc is the author of Practice Safe Stress, The Four Faces of Anger, and Preserving Human Touch in a High-Tech World. Mark’s award-winning, USA Today Online "HotSite" – www.stressdoc.com – was called a "workplace resource" by National Public Radio (NPR). For more info, email: stressdoc@aol.com.